By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth runners joined the masses at the annual Princeton Invitational cross country meet staged near Milaca Saturday.
With more than 3,600 runners competing in the junior high, junior varsity and varsity races staged during the event, the Princeton Invitational is billed the world's largest one-day cross country meet.
A bus trek through the night to get to the course for the morning races challenged the H-BC-E runners, as did a pouring ran that fell throughout the event.
Other than the inconveniences, Patriot coach Tom Goehle deemed the meet a positive experience for his athletes.
"It's a spectacle just to see all the different team tents set up in the area and seeing that many runners competing in the same race," he said. "Some of our kids had to run in pretty nasty conditions, but it was a fun time."
Goehle said a pair of freshman girls turned in some of the best efforts in the 130-runner, two and a half mile race. Cassi Tilstra finished 11th in 16:55, and Brittney Rozeboom placed 23rd in 17:49.
The coach also was pleased with the effort by Brad Haak in the 500-runner, 5,000-meter boys' varsity race. Haak placed 18th in 17:11.
H-BC-E fielded a complete freshman boys' team that placed fourth overall with 407 points.
Tyler Bush (39th in 15:28), Greg Van Batavia (41st in 15:29), Kale Wiertzema (46th in 15:33), Derek Haak (111th in 17:08) and Jared Drenth (173rd in 19:22) represented the Patriots well during the 4,000-meter, 230-runner race.
Patriot Lee Jackson also ran 4,000 meters in the boys' sophomore race, placing 31st in 15:02.
The boys' junior varsity runners ran 5,000 meters against 500 runners.
Matt Buck led H-BC-E by placing 48th in 18:49. Nathan Fick was 85th in 19:11 and Paul Jess 417th in 22:59.
Seventh- and eighth-grade boys and girls ran two miles during their respective events.
Devin DeBoer (121st in 14:20), Kerry Fink (124th in 14:28), John Sandbulte (154th in 14:57) and Justin Hinks (206th in 18:56) mixed it up with 208 runners in the boys' eighth-grade race, while Stacy Bush finished 83rd out of 122 runners in the girls' eighth-grade event.
Nathan Mahone and Adam Finke placed 24th and 72nd with respective 13:02 and 14:10 times in the boys' seventh-grade race. Amanda Tilstra placed 50th out of 160 runners in the girls' seventh-grade run.